Want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans… I apologize, I’m late again. All the Christmastide revelry (such as it is in a houseful of children!) has put my schedule off a bit.

This week, we have another elimination challenge. We’re going to go through the cupboards and remove refined grain products and sweeteners. This is a very difficult challenge for many of us. We grew up learning how to cook, and bake, with these products. It takes lots and lots of practice to learn to prepare recipes without them. So let’s just say that we’re going to drastically reduce the amounts we have in our homes. You can phase in replacement flours and sweeteners more slowly.

As far as our bodies are concerned, there is almost no difference between refined flours and refined sweeteners. The average American consumes just about a half-pound of sugar a day. You read that right - a half-pound! These sugars come from the sugar we put into our tea or coffee, breads in our sandwiches, breakfast cereals, and snacks. They also come from soft drinks and fruit juices. Some of these products should be banned from our diet, others moderated, and whatever of these products we eat should be substituted for truly nutritious options.

How can you tell if you have too much sugar in your diet?

1. You need a morning cup of coffee to jump start your day.
2. You crash midmorning and feel overwhelmed, irritable, or anxious. You may have dizzy spells or headaches.
3. You crash again mid-afternoon, and go for another cup or two of coffee to wake yourself up.
4. You have difficulty sleeping, despite feeling exhausted.
5. You suffer chronic constipation

Your body needs a consistent level of fuel to function properly. Allowing your blood sugar to drop, and skipping meals will actually DROP your metabolic rate. Your body goes into starvation mode and slows the metabolism to conserve energy. When our blood sugar drops, or when we are hungry, we gravitate toward those things we know will produce a quick lift. Carbohydrates break down into sugar in the blood very quickly. Unfortuantely, the sources of most carbohydrates are entirely bereft of nutrition.

Refined sugars come from a variety of sources - sugar cane, beets, corn. Refined sugars have been described as poison by Dr. William Coda martin because of their ability to strip nutrients from our bodies. Sugars increase the acid levels in our bodies, which leads to significant inflamation. Inflamation or _itis_ causes the body to scar and break down faster. Not to mention that it causes a lot of pain and discomfort. These properties of sugars can lead to a host of health other problems that include:

Suppression of the immune system, leading to viral and bacterial infections.
Rise in adrenaline levels causing hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, and concentration difficulties.
Interference with liver function, causing problems with cholesterol and inflamed liver - even toxemia in pregnancy
Interferece with absorption of calcium and magnesium, leading to joint problems and osteoporosis.
Tooth decay.
Decrease in insulin sensitivity, leading to diabetes
Depression.
Increase the body’s fluid retention.
Increases bacterial fermentation in the colon.

Natural sweeteners are excellent replacements for refined sugar, keeping in mind that we still must reduce the total amount of sugar of any kind. Raw honey contains anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-oxidant properties. It has been shown to reduce blood sugar levels in Type 2 diabetics, decrease LDL cholesterol, heal wounds and burns, and destroy free radicals. The same can not be said of refined honey - there is a significant difference. Maple syrup and molasses are also better choices since they are closer to the source. Molasses has long been used by naturopathic practioners and wise mothers for generations. Molasses contains high mineral levels (iron, calcium, manganese, copper, potassium, B6, and selenium). In fact, it is what has been stripped from refined sugar - that’s where all the goodness went! But use these sweeteners with moderation — they still are not significant sources of nutrients in your diet - but are worlds away better than refined sugars that can steal away nutrients from the body.

A word about artificial sweeteners. I understand that artificial sweeteners are recommended for people with diabetes. I would recommend visiting an ND to get another opinion. Artificial sweeteners are dangerous to dieters. They are derived from a variety of chemical compounds, including substances likened to pool cleaner. Sucralose, aspartame, and saccharin are carcinogenic and neurotoxic according to some sources. They also seem to have the rather undesired affect of slowing or shutting down metabolism. How’s that for counter-productive? The rule of thumb in our house applies: if God didn’t make it, I don’t want to eat it. Put another way, “if I don’t recognize the first generation source of this thing as something God made, I don’t want to eat it.”

Now on to flours:

Whole wheat is very rich in nutrients such as Vitamin E, calcium, zinc, copper, manganese, potassium, and B Vitamins. It is also an excellent source of fibre. In the process of turning whole wheat in to commercial white flour, all of these nutrients are completely stripped away, sometimes being bleached to avoid intereference with a desired color. What we are left with is a “dead, lifeless powder” (cite. Lori Lipinksi), which no longer breaks down and makes an ideal binder for additives, preservatives, artificial colors, flavors, cheap fats and refined sweeteners. In an effort to make their products seem “healthy”, manufacturers have “fortified” them with synthetic nutrients.

Synthetic B vitamins are derived from coal tar - a brown or black sticky liquid which is a by-product of the coal industry. It is sometimes used as fuel, has been used in shampoos and skin preparations for psoriasis (as me how I know!) because it is cheap. Coal tar is highly flammable (obviously), and is carcinogenic. Interestingly, the artificial sweetener saccharin is also derived from coal tar. It’s easy to see that B vitamins derived from this source could cause serious imbalances in the body. This is just one example of the importance of *food derived* nutrients and supplements.

Not only are refined sugars and flours entirely lacking in nutrition, but they actually strip enzymes, vitamins, and minerals from our bodies. Isn’t it strange that the American Dietetic Association (the US’s largest organization of nutrition professionals) recommends 8 to 11 servings of these products each day?

We must learn to reduce and replace. As I said, this can be a big challenge for most of us, but the following steps should help.

1. Limit white flour foods to 3 each week.
2. Replace white pasta with a whole grain pasta (try Eden Pasta)
3. Replace white bread with homemade whole grain breads, or try Ezekiel Bread.
4. Grind your own flour from whole grains - wheatberries, whole oats, barley, rye…
5. Buy whole grain organic flours instead of white - remember to refrigerate them as they still contain their natural oils, which can go rancid.
6. Buy old style crackers such as Wasa Crackers instead of saltines
7. Replace white flour bagels and flatbreads with sprouted grain ones from Food for Life or Alvarado Street Bakery
8. Replace cereals with steel-cut oats, and other whole grain cereals (barley, rice, wheat).
9. Replace white rice with good, organic brown rices and other whole grains. **I have found that generic, or “big man” brown rice is highly unpalatable. Choose a good brand like Bob’s Red Mill.
10. Reduce sweet drinks to one or two a day (this would include your morning cup of coffee and juice). You are already drinking up to a half-gallon of water a day, so you are getting plenty of hydration. Try herbal tea with raw honey if you need something a little sweet.
11. Limit sweet treats to 3 per week, and not on a high-carb meal day (like pasta or rice).
12. Eat protein rich meals (legumes, eggs, fish, poultry, meat) for morning and mid-day.
13. Don’t skip meals. This will help you to avoid reaching for an unsuitable snack.
14. Replace white sugar with natural sweeteners like raw honey, maple syrup, molassas, dehydrated cane juice (Rapadura). Read the labels in your local organic market, you can sometimes find treats made with these sweeteners.
15. Limit natural sweets to 3 per week.

You see that making a menu plan is very important to helping you maintain your health. It will help you to create a shopping list of only those things you need for your menu, and ensure that you balance your meals properly. If you follow these guidelines, you should begin to notice that your energy levels are more constant, that you feel less anxious, and that you are sleeping better. Headaches will begin to disappear and your digestion will improve.

A word about constipation. Most people do not realize that they are constipated. You should move your bowels 30-40 minutes after each time you eat. Have you noticed that little babies do? Our American diet leads to chronic constipation due to the refined sugars and flours in our foods. If you add water to flour, what do you get? Paste. You’ve made recipes with flour before. It is used as a binding agent for all sorts of ingredients. That is precisely what you’ve got in your digestive tract. Paste. Paste gives rotting food a place to stick and makes a lovely home for parasites. We need the bulk that comes from whole grains to scrub out the colon. Constipation can lead to headaches, fatigue and even acne (which is caused by the body trying to eliminate excess toxins through the skin). Parasitic colonies are very dangerous to our health when they overpopulate- and everyone has them. And they can add 7-10 lbs to your body weight - or more! But that’s a topic for another day.

I wish you a blessed week. I’ll be praying for you all as you clear out the cupboards. I know it’s difficult, but you really can do it. And if it takes you two or three weeks to get these things out and replaced, that’s perfectly fine. Be gentle to yourself.

Posted: 01|5|08 at 10:48 am. Filed under: from our hearth and home, Fit in 40.
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